Establishing and using a tunnel from an origin server in a distributed edge compute and routing service

ABSTRACT

An edge server of a distributed edge compute and routing service receives a tunnel connection request from a tunnel client residing on an origin server, that requests a tunnel be established between the edge server and the tunnel client. The request identifies the hostname that is to be tunneled. An IP address is assigned for the tunnel. DNS record(s) are added or changed that associate the hostname with the assigned IP address. Routing rules are installed in the edge servers of the distributed edge compute and routing service to reach the edge server for the tunneled hostname. The edge server receives a request for a resource of the tunneled hostname from another edge server that received the request from a client, where the other edge server is not connected to the origin server. The request is transmitted from the edge server to the origin server over the tunnel.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/883,116, filed May 26, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 16/160,294, filed Oct. 15, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No.10,666,613, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/719,537, filed Sep. 28, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,104,039, which ishereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD

Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of networkcommunications; and more specifically, to establishing and using atunnel from an origin server in a distributed edge compute and routingservice.

BACKGROUND

The internet has historically been open where content including servicesand applications provided by companies are exposed to the generalinternet. However, exposing these services and applications to thegeneral internet may not be secure. Since any application on theinternet can be a target for an attack, these companies often try tohide the origin server of their application. For example, they may use aproxy to try to mask the origin IP address and/or they may lock downports to block unwanted traffic. In some cases, Generic RoutingEncapsulation (GRE) tunneling or a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is usedto secure the services and applications, and to keep their originhidden. However, GRE tunneling and implementing a VPN is time consuming,requires cross-company coordination, and is not flexible to easily makechanges.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may best be understood by referring to the followingdescription and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrateembodiments of the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system for establishing and using atunnel from an origin server in a distributed edge compute and routingservice according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram that illustrates exemplary operations forestablishing a tunnel to an edge server in a distributed edge computeand routing service according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates exemplary operations for usinga tunnel established in a distributed edge compute and routing serviceaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates exemplary operations for usinga tunnel established in a distributed edge compute and routing serviceaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary implementationof a bidirectional stream multiplexer using HTTP/2 according to anembodiment; and

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary computer device that can be used in someembodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

A method and apparatus for establishing and using a tunnel from anorigin server in a distributed edge compute and routing service isdescribed. This allows origin servers to serve content such asapplications or services through a secure tunnel to an edge server inthe distributed edge compute and routing service. The content may beinternal applications or services running locally on the origin serverbehind a firewall or NAT. An origin server can serve content byconnecting to an edge server to expose that content safely to theinternet without having the origin server generally exposed to theinternet. This may allow for origin IP hiding, firewall traversal, andautomatic DNS and load balancing configuration.

The distributed edge compute and routing service may provide differentservices for customers (e.g., domain owners or operators) such asprotecting against internet-based threats, performance services (e.g.,acting as a content delivery network (CDN) and dynamically cachingcustomer's files closer to visitors, page acceleration/optimization),TCP stack optimizations, and/or other services. The distributed edgecompute and routing service includes multiple points-of-presence (PoP)that are typically geographically distributed (e.g., in differentlocations throughout the world). Each PoP may include one or moreservers (e.g., one or more edge servers, one or more control servers,one or more DNS servers (e.g., one or more authoritative name servers,one or more proxy DNS servers), and one or more other pieces of networkequipment such as router(s), switch(es), and/or hub(s)). Each PoP may bepart of a different data center and/or colocation site.

A tunnel client running on an origin server connects over a securesession to a tunnel service running on an edge server of the distributededge compute and routing service, and requests a tunnel be establishedbetween the tunnel service and the tunnel client. This request includesconfiguration information that may include authentication information(e.g., username/password, an API key, cryptographic identity (e.g., acertificate), and/or email address), TLS configuration information(e.g., type of TLS supported), port, and/or hostname for which trafficwill be forwarded on the tunnel. The tunnel service may forward therequest to a tunnel control service for establishing the tunnel, or mayestablish the tunnel itself. Establishing the tunnel may includeauthenticating the request and configuring a DNS zone and possibly atunnel subdomain zone (used as a CNAME target and an alternative way ofaccessing the tunnel). For example, a tunneled hostname may appear as aCNAME to a subdomain of a dedicated domain for the tunneling service. Aunique IP address may be assigned to the tunnel. Multiple streams ofdata and control may be multiplexed over a single established tunnel.The edge server may also generate or receive from the tunnel controlservice a private key and certificate signed by an authority trusted bythe web server to present when serving content from the hostname.

In an embodiment, the tunnel client connects over secure sessions tomultiple tunnel services running on multiple edge servers of thedistributed edge compute and routing service to request multiple tunnelsbe established respectively for the same hostname. An edge server thatis connected to an origin server over a tunnel is referred herein as atunneling edge server. Edge servers that are not tunneling edge serversfor a hostname may receive and route traffic to the edge server(s) thatare tunneling edge server(s). In an embodiment, one of the edge serversthat is selected to be a tunneling edge server for an origin server isthe closest to the origin server as determined by the anycast protocol.The other edge server(s) that are selected to be tunneling edgeserver(s) may be based on connection information of the group ofpossible edge servers. For instance, the group of edge servers may havedifferent reliability information collected over time. The other edgeserver(s) that are selected may be those that are relatively morereliable than other edge servers. As another example, connectioninformation may be received for the group of edge servers (e.g.bandwidth, latency, etc.). The other edge server(s) that are selectedmay be based on the connection information (e.g., prioritizing edgeserver(s) with relatively better connections as shown by the connectioninformation than other edge servers). In an embodiment, the edge serversthat are selected to be tunneling edge servers are the closest N edgeservers to the origin server as determined by the anycast protocol.

If multiple tunnels for the same hostname are established, a loadbalancer may be created for load balancing between the tunnels. The loadbalancer may be automatically created for a hostname if there is anexisting tunnel established for the hostname and a request for anothertunnel for the hostname is received. The load balancer may createdifferent virtual origin names for the tunneled hostname and loadbalance between them. The load balancer may monitor the origin serversand/or the tunnels to determine their status (e.g., if they are healthyor unhealthy). The load balancer may use one or more load balancingtechniques, such as evenly distributing the load across the multipletunnels or a group of specified tunnels (a pool of tunnels),distributing the load across the multiple tunnels using round-robinselection, distributing the load by selecting the tunnel connected tothe origin server with the lowest CPU load and/or network load,distributing the load across the multiple tunnels according to thenumber of concurrent requests, and/or distributing the load across themultiple tunnels based on average request latency over an arbitrary timeperiod (sending the traffic to the lowest average request latency). Theload balancing may also include geographical routing where the tunneledhostname owner can configure specific traffic policies and failoverordering by geographic region. For instance, all traffic from NorthAmerica can be directed to a pool of virtual origin servers located inNorth America and failover to a pool of virtual origin servers inEurope, and vice versa. In an embodiment, the load balancing may usedata collected from the tunnel clients on different origin servers forthe hostname as additional metrics for load balancing, such as CPUconsumption, bytes in, bytes out, number of clients connected, statuscodes, response time, and/or errors.

After establishing the tunnel(s), data can be transmitted over theestablished tunnel(s). For instance, an edge server of the distributededge compute and routing service may receive an HTTP request for thetunneled hostname, identify the intended origin server, and transmit theHTTP request towards, or over, the established tunnel. If an edge serveris not a tunneling edge server for the tunneled hostname (it does nothave a tunnel to the origin server for the tunneled hostname), that edgeserver determines which tunneling edge server to transmit the HTTPrequest and routes the traffic accordingly. In an embodiment, which willbe described in greater detail later herein, the routing between edgeservers and a tunneling edge server is performed intelligently based ontraffic information (e.g., latency, packet loss data) gathered fromother requests that traverse the distributed edge compute and routingservice.

In an embodiment, multiple IP addresses are assigned to the tunnel thatare announced on different carriers. For instance, a first IP addressmay be assigned and announced on a first carrier and a second IP addressmay be assigned on a second carrier. As will be described in greaterdetail later herein, the edge servers may route traffic between the edgeservers and a tunneling edge server based on traffic information thatmay include carrier information (e.g., selecting one carrier frommultiple carriers in which to route the traffic).

Similarly, the tunneling edge server may receive an HTTP response overthe established tunnel, identify the intended recipient, and transmitthe HTTP response toward the intended recipient (which may be throughone or more other edge servers of the distributed edge compute androuting service).

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system for establishing and using atunnel from an origin server in a distributed edge compute and routingservice according to an embodiment. In an embodiment, the system 100includes a distributed edge compute and routing service that providesdifferent services such as protecting against internet-based threats,providing performance services for customers (e.g., acting as a contentdelivery network (CDN) and dynamically caching customer's files close tovisitors, page acceleration, etc.), TCP stack optimizations, and/orother services. The system 100 includes the client devices 110 that eachrun a client network application, the PoPs 120A and 120B, the controlserver 125, and the origin server 130.

Each client device is a computing device (e.g., laptop, workstation,smartphone, mobile phone, tablet, gaming system, set top box, wearabledevice, Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) that is capable oftransmitting and/or receiving network traffic. Each client networkapplication may be a web browser, native application, or otherapplication that can access network resources (e.g., web pages, images,word processing documents, PDF files, movie files, music files, or othercomputer files).

The PoP 120A is situated between the client devices 110 and the PoP120B. The PoP 120A includes the edge server 160A and the DNS server 162,and the PoP 120B includes the edge server 160B. Each PoP may be part ofa different data center or colocation site. Although FIG. 1 shows twoPoPs, there may be many PoPs that are geographically distributed as partof the distributed edge compute and routing service. For example, insome embodiments, multiple PoPs are geographically distributed todecrease the distance between requesting client devices and content. TheDNS servers in the PoPs (e.g., the authoritative name servers, DNS proxyservers) may have the same anycast IP address, and the edge servers inthe PoPs may have the same anycast IP address for a domain. As a result,when a DNS request for a domain is made, the network transmits the DNSrequest to the closest DNS server (in terms of the routing protocolconfiguration). The DNS server responds with one or more IP addresses ofone or more edge servers within the PoP. Accordingly, a visitor will bebound to that edge server until the next DNS resolution for therequested hostname (according to the TTL (time to live) value asprovided by the authoritative name server). In some embodiments, insteadof using an anycast mechanism, a geographical load balancer to routetraffic to the nearest edge service node is used. Although FIG. 1 doesnot show a DNS server in the PoP 120B, the PoP 120B may include one ormore DNS servers like PoP 120A.

An edge server of a PoP may receive network traffic from the clientdevices 110 requesting network resources. For example, the web server165A of the edge server 160A may receive requests for an action to beperformed on an identified resource (e.g., an HTTP GET request, an HTTPPOST request, other HTTP request methods, or other requests to beapplied to an identified resource on an origin server) from a clientdevice. The request received from the client device may be destined foran origin server (e.g., origin server 130). The web server 165A of theedge server 160A may receive the requests from client devices in severalways. In one embodiment, the request is received at the edge server 160Abecause the domain of the requested web page resolves to an IP addressof the edge server 160A instead of the origin server 130. In such anembodiment, the domain of the web page resolves to an IP address of theedge server 160A instead of an IP address of the origin server 130. Forexample, if the origin server 130 handles the domain example.com, a DNSrequest for example.com returns an IP address of the edge servers 160instead of an IP address of the origin server 130. In some embodiments,multiple domains that may be owned by different domain owners mayresolve to the same edge server 160A (e.g., resolve to the same IPaddress or a different IP address of the edge server 160A). In anembodiment, the edge server 160A is one of multiple edge servers thatare geographically distributed and are anycasted to the same IP addressor the same set of IP address. The edge server 160A may receive therequest because it is the closest server to the requesting client device110 in terms of routing protocol configuration (e.g., Border GatewayProtocol (BGP) configuration) according to an Anycast implementation asdetermined by the network infrastructure (e.g., the routers, switches,or other network equipment between the requesting client device 110 andthe edge server) that is not illustrated in FIG. 1 for simplicitypurposes.

The origin server 130, which may be owned or operated directly orindirectly by a customer of the distributed edge compute and routingservice, includes the tunnel client 140. The origin server 130 is acomputing device on which a network resource resides and/or originates(e.g., web pages, images, word processing documents, PDF files moviefiles, music files, or other computer files). The origin server 130includes content (e.g., an application, service, etc.) that the ownerwants to secure without the content being exposed to the generalinternet. The content may be running locally on the origin server 130 orbehind a firewall/NAT.

The tunnel client 140 connects to the edge server 160B and requests atunnel be established between the edge server 160B and the origin server130. In an embodiment, the tunnel client 140 connects to the edge server150B via the anycast protocol thereby creating a connection to theclosest edge server to the origin server 130. In another embodiment, thetunnel client 140 connects to the edge server 150B via a site-localaddress (a private address that is not globally routable) for the edgeserver 150B. The connection to the edge server 160B is over a securesession (e.g., Transport Layer Security (TLS), IPsec). The connectionmay be secured with a pinned certificate embedded in the tunnel client140. The tunnel client 140 may be configured to send configurationinformation for the tunnel to the tunnel service 145. The configurationinformation may include authentication information (e.g.,username/password, an access token (e.g., an API key), cryptographicidentity (e.g., a certificate), and/or email address), TLS configurationinformation (e.g., type of TLS supported), port, and/or hostname thattraffic should be received on. The tunnel client 140 may collect dataduring operation and report the collected data to the tunnel service 145(which may in turn forward the data to the tunnel control service 150)that can be used as additional metrics for load balancing.

The tunnel service 145 on the edge server 160B accepts tunnel connectionrequests such as from the tunnel client 140. The tunnel service 145sends the tunnel connection request to the tunnel control service 150 ofthe control server 125. The tunnel connection request may include theconfiguration information for the tunnel. The control server 125 is acentralized server that is connected with multiple PoPs. The tunnelservice 145 may also include a communication server (e.g., a RemoteProcedure Call (RPC) server, HTTP REST server, etc.), that can be usedby the tunnel control service 150 to inspect, shutdown, and/or redirecttunnels. The tunnel service 145 may also communicate with the web server165B of the edge server 160B to proxy requests for the tunnel hostnameto the origin server. For instance, the tunnel service 145 may convertrequests (e.g., HTTP or HTTPS requests) to HTTP/2 requests within thetunnel as identified by the hostname through Server Name Indication(SNI). The web server 165B acts as an HTTP proxy server on an internalsite-local IP address, and the tunnel service 145 permits access only tothe internal site-local IP address.

The tunnel control service 150 receives the tunnel connection requestfrom the tunnel service 145, which may include the configurationinformation for the tunnel. The tunnel control service 150 authenticatesthe request, causes DNS record(s) to be created/updated, and may acquireorigin CA certificates to secure the internal connection between the webserver running on the edge server with the tunnel service 145. Forexample, the tunnel control service 150 uses the provided authenticationinformation (e.g., username/password, an access token (e.g., an APIkey), and/or email address) to determine whether the request has beensent from an authorized user, and whether the tunnel control service 150has permission to change DNS record(s) for the provided hostname. If therequest is not being sent from an authorized user, then a tunnel willnot be established. If the tunnel control service 150 determines toestablish a tunnel, the tunnel control service 150 may configure a DNSzone and possibly a tunnel subdomain zone used as a CNAME target for thetunnel. The tunnel control service 150 may transmit a record update tothe DNS control server 152 that updates the DNS zones accordingly. Forinstance, for the hostname to be tunneled, the tunnel control service150 may cause a CNAME record to a subdomain of a dedicated domain forthe tunneling service to be created, and a unique IP address may beassigned for the tunnel. The tunnel control service 150 may also obtainan SSL certificate (e.g., an origin CA certificate) to secure theinternal connection between the web server 165B running on the edgeserver 160B with the tunnel service 145.

The tunnel control service 150 may send a response to the tunnel service145 indicating any errors, the hostnames that have been configured forthe tunnel, and the certificate to present when serving the hostname.The DNS control server 152 may transmit a zone update message to the DNSserver 162 of the PoP 120A that reflects the DNS zone updates for thetunneled hostname. Although not illustrated in FIG. 1 for simplicity,the DNS control server 152 may transmit a zone update message to theother DNS servers of other PoPs that are not shown in FIG. 1 . Theconnection between the control server 125 and the edge server 160B maybe a secure connection (e.g., a mutually authenticated TLS connection).The tunnel control service 150 may maintain an audit log (e.g., tunnelconnect and disconnect events) and/or an active tunnel table in adatabase or memory.

A virtual origin is created within the distributed edge compute androuting service when the tunnel is established. For instance, thevirtual origin 135A and 135B is illustrated as being created logicallywithin the web server 165A and 165B respectively. The virtual origin mayhave its own configuration, access rules, authentication policies, etc.For instance, the tunneled hostname owner can establish policies (e.g.,allowing X number of connections per second, specifying certain routes,specifying incoming traffic from only certain IP addresses and/or IPaddress ranges, etc.) that are enforced at the edge servers of thedistributed edge compute and routing service. The virtual origin hidesthe origin of the IP address of the tunneled hostname. Thus, thetunneled content does not have a public IP address and thus cannot bedirectly attacked. To say it another way, attacks directed to thetunneled hostname will not be received at the origin server 130, and theIP address of the origin server 130 is not otherwise exposed.

After the tunnel 180 is established, traffic may be routed betweenvirtual origins and over the established tunnel 180. For instance, thevirtual origin 135A of the HTTP proxy server 165A of the edge server160A of the PoP 120A may receive an HTTP (or HTTPS) request from aclient device 110 for the tunneled hostname. The request may be receivedby the edge server 160A because it is the closest edge server to therequesting client device as determined by the anycast protocol. In analternative, instead of using an anycast mechanism, a geographical loadbalancer that routes traffic to the nearest edge server may cause theedge server 160A to receive the request. Since the HTTP proxy server165A is not connected to the tunnel 180 for the hostname, the HTTP proxyserver 165A routes the request toward the virtual origin 135B of theedge server 160B that is connected to the tunnel 180 for the hostname.The tunnel service 145 receives the request, identifies the intendedorigin (e.g., as identified through Server Name Indication (SNI)) ifusing HTTPS), and transmits the HTTP request over the establishedtunnel. For instance, the tunnel service 145 may convert requests (e.g.,HTTP or HTTPS requests) to HTTP/2 requests within the tunnel asidentified by the hostname through Server Name Indication (SNI). Theedge server 160B may receive an HTTP response over the establishedtunnel, identify the intended recipient, and transmit the HTTP responsetoward the intended recipient. Multiple streams of data may bemultiplexed over a single established tunnel.

As previously described, an established tunnel may support multipleconcurrent requests over a single connection including data and control.In an embodiment, the tunnel uses a bidirectional stream multiplexerusing HTTP/2. FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary implementation of abidirectional stream multiplexer using HTTP/2, according to anembodiment. The muxer struct 510 represents an established, multiplexedconnection. The muxer 510 is created by performing a handshake on aconnection (provided as a Reader 515 and Writer 540). If the handshakesucceeds, the Muxer 510 is returned in a ready but idle state. To startcommunication, a call to Server must be performed. Each instance ofMuxedStream 565 represents a single stream of the Muxer. There may bemany instances of MuxedStream 565. MuxedStream 565 implementsReadWriteCloser and can be treated like an arbitrary data stream. Clientcode 570 writes and reads from the MuxedStream 565.

MuxedStream 565 opens new streams with an initial set of headers, andsynchronously returns a MuxedStream object once the peer has sent theresponse headers. For example, new streams are created by MuxedStream565 by calling OpenStream on the Muxer (represented in element 560).OpenStream 560 requires a slice of response headers and an optionalrequest body (e.g., http.Request). If successful, the result is aMuxedStream object back with the response headers, and reading andwriting may begin.

The MuxReader 525 implements the read end of the connection. It receivescontrol and data messages, adjusts the connection, and pushes data intoMuxedStream objects. It has one-way communication with MuxWriter 535 toinform the remote side of errors or to acknowledge certain frames. TheMuxWriter 535 implements the write end of the connection. It processescontrol messages and flushes MuxedStream write buffers when there isdata to send and the remote receive window is non-empty.

As illustrated in FIG. 5 , some operations (particularly I/O operations)are blocking operations. To account for blocking operations, theMuxReader 525 notifies the MuxWriter 535 to service a request at itsconvenience, and coalesce requests if one is outstanding (throughpings), GOAWAY (to initiate a shutdown of a connection or to signalserious error condition), and through use of the StreamErrorMap 550.Both the MuxReader 525 and the MuxWriter 535 can add, retrieve, andclose streams as atomic operations. The MuxReader 525 and the MuxWriter535 do not synchronize with client routines, and do not hold locks whileperforming I/O.

The activeStreamMap 520 is an abstraction over the set of currentlyactive streams. For example, the activeStreamMap 520 may be a concurrentmap holding a pointer to each MuxedStream instance by its stream ID. TheactiveStreamMap 520 allows the MuxReader 525 and the MuxWriter 535 toatomically access and manipulate independent streams. TheactiveStreamMap 520 supports allocation of new streams including theability to block the creation of new streams when shutting down aconnection. The activeStreamMap 520 tracks two key values for the HTTP/2protocol: the highest stream IDs created locally and by the peer. Whencreating a new stream, the next highest ID is acquired atomically. Whenreceiving a HEADERS frame from the peer for a new stream, a verificationof the ID is performed to determine if the ID is legal according to theprotocol. The activeStreamMap 520 handles graceful shutdown by rejectingrequests for new streams, and signaling when the last stream has beenclosed.

The StreamErrorMap 550 is a concurrent map holding the mostrecently-raised error for each stream ID. This exists separately toactiveStreamMap 520 as errors can be raised against messages witharbitrary stream IDs. When at least one error has been raised, theStreamErrorMap 550 raises a signal that the MuxWriter 535 thread orprocess waits on. After receiving the signal, the MuxWriter 535atomically extracts all errors raised so far, resetting theStreamErrorMap 550.

The ReadyList 555 offers a fan-in channel for multiple signals. This isused by the MuxedStream 565 to indicate that there is new writable datafor the MuxWriter 535 to process. Whenever a writable event occurs, theReadyList 555 is signaled with the stream ID. A routine enqueues thesignal, and sends it on the ReadyChannel consumed by the MuxWriter 535.Unsent signals for a stream are deduplicated. First-in First-Out (FIFO)is used to avoid stream starvation caused by a single high-bandwidthstream monopolizing the MuxWriter 535. For instance, for a singlewritable event, the largest transmissible block of data may beatomically dequeued from the stream, after which the stream is no longerwritable. This transmission occurs independently of requests from thepeer for more data on that stream, such that when the request for moredata is received by MuxReader 525 in parallel, the stream is enqueuedinto the ReadyList 555 to be processed after all currently writable andpending streams have been processed.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram that illustrates exemplary operations forestablishing a tunnel to an edge server in a distributed edge computeand routing service according to an embodiment. The operations of FIG. 2will be described with respect to the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1 .However, the operations of FIG. 2 can be performed by differentembodiments than those of FIG. 1 , and FIG. 1 can perform operationsdifferent than those of FIG. 2 .

At operation 210, the tunnel service 145 receives a tunnel connectionrequest from the tunnel client 140. The tunnel connection request mayinclude the configuration information for the tunnel includingauthentication information (e.g., username/password, an access token(e.g., an API key), cryptographic identity (e.g., a certificate), and/oremail address), TLS configuration information (e.g., type of TLSsupported), port, and/or hostname for the tunneled traffic. The tunnelconnection request may be received over a secure session (e.g., a TLSconnection), that may be secured with a pinned certificate embedded intothe tunnel client 140. In an embodiment, the tunnel client 140 mayexpose an interface (e.g., a command line interface, a graphical userinterface) to allow the hostname owner to make the request. For example,the following command may be input on the tunnel client 140 to request atunnel be created for the hostname “tunnel.example.com”: <cftunnel—httphostname=tunnel.example.com-authtoken=<api-key>,email@example.com 8000>.

Next, at operation 215, the tunnel service 145 forwards the tunnelconnection request including the configuration information to the tunnelcontrol service 150. The connection between the tunnel service 145 andthe tunnel control service 150 may be secured using mutuallyauthenticated TLS. The tunnel control service 150 receives the tunnelconnection request from the tunnel service 145. Although FIG. 2describes forwarding the tunnel connection request to the tunnel controlservice 150, in another embodiment, the tunnel service 145 performs theoperations of FIG. 2 without interaction with the tunnel control service150.

Next, at operation 220, the tunnel control service 150 determineswhether the tunnel connection request is authorized. The tunnel controlservice 150 may use the provided authentication information to determinewhether the tunnel connection request is being received from a user thatis authorized to make a connection. If the tunnel connection request isnot authorized, then flow moves to operation 255 where the tunnelcontrol service 150 generates a response message indicating an error ofan unauthorized request. This response message can be forwarded to thetunnel service 145 that forwards this response message to the tunnelclient 140. If the tunnel connection request is authorized, then flowmoves to operation 225.

At operation 225, the tunnel control service 150 assigns an IP addressto the tunnel. In an embodiment, a unique IP address (e.g., an IPv6)address is assigned to the tunnel. The IP address may be anycastedand/or selectively anycast to distribute connections to multiple PoPs.In an embodiment, multiple IP addresses are assigned to the tunnel thatare announced on different carriers. For instance, a first IP addressmay be assigned and announced on a first carrier and a second IP addressmay be assigned on a second carrier. As will be described in greaterdetail later herein, the edge servers may route traffic between the edgeservers and a tunneling edge server based on traffic information thatmay include carrier information (e.g., selecting one carrier frommultiple carriers in which to route the traffic).

Next, at operation 230, the tunnel control service 150 acquires anorigin CA certificate to secure the internal connection between the webserver 165B and the tunnel service 145. The origin CA certificate is acertificate that may be created and signed by the distributed edgecompute and routing service, or may be provided by the owner of thetunneled hostname. To acquire the origin CA certificate, if one isalready established by the owner of the tunneled hostname, the tunnelcontrol service 150 may use the access token (e.g., an API key) providedwith the tunnel connection request to acquire the origin CA certificate.If an origin CA certificate is not established, the tunnel controlservice 150 may cause the prompting to the tunnel requester to createand/or submit an origin CA certificate.

The tunnel control service 150 determines whether the DNS records of thecustomer can be directly changed by the distributed edge compute androuting service, at operation 235. For example, the tunnel controlservice 150 can cause the DNS records of the customer to be updated ifthe customer previously gave permission to change its DNS records on itsbehalf. In one embodiment, the access token (e.g., an API key) that maybe provided with the tunnel connection request may be used forregistering the tunnels on the customer zone. If the tunnel controlservice 150 can change the DNS records of the customer directly, thenflow moves to operation 240; otherwise flow moves to operation 260.

At operation 240, the tunnel control service 150 causes the DNS zone tobe configured so the tunneled hostname points to assigned IP address(es)to the tunnel. For instance, the tunnel control service 150 may send arecord update message to the DNS control server 152 that causes a DNSrecord for the tunneled hostname to be created and point to the assignedIP address(es). In an embodiment, the tunnel control service 150 maycause a CNAME record to a subdomain of a dedicated domain for thetunneling service to be created and point to the assigned IPaddress(es). For instance, if the tunneled hostname is “tunnel” for thedomain “example.com”, a CNAME record for the hostname “tunnel” may pointto a random subdomain of a dedicated domain for the tunneling service(e.g., ab1489903c3ed159.cftunnel.com), and the random subdomain of thededicated domain for the tunneling service points to the assigned IPaddress(es). In such a case, the tunnel may be accessed by using therandom subdomain of the dedicated domain or the tunneled hostname. Therandom subdomain may be a string of N length that is a hash or saltedhash of the hostname so that it is unique and constant per hostname. TheDNS control server 152 in turn causes a zone update message to betransmitted to the DNS server 162 and the other DNS servers of thedistributed edge compute and routing service that reflects the tunnelregistration. Flow then moves to operation 245.

If the tunnel control service 150 cannot change the DNS records onbehalf of the customer, then at operation 260, the tunnel controlservice 150 generates a response message instructing the tunneledhostname owner to update the DNS record corresponding to their designedhostname accordingly. For example, the response message may include therandom subdomain of the dedicated domain and instruct the hostname ownerto create or update a CNAME record for the tunneled hostname to point tothe random subdomain of the dedicated domain. The tunnel control service150 still updates the DNS zone such that the random subdomain of thededicated domain points to the assigned IP address(es) of the tunnel.Flow then moves to operation 245.

In an embodiment, the tunneling service supports multiple tunnels for asingle hostname. A user of the service may want multiple tunnels formultiple backends of the origin server (e.g., if providing the samecontent on multiple origin servers). Multiple tunnels may be useful forload balancing across the multiple tunnels and/or to provide highavailability (e.g., to account for failure of an edge server and/or anorigin server). The multiple tunnels may connect a tunnel client tomultiple instances of the tunnel service on the same physical edgeserver or across multiple edge servers. The multiple tunnels may be fromthe same origin server to multiple edge servers, from multiple originservers to the same edge server, and/or from multiple origin servers tomultiple edge servers.

At operation 245, the tunnel control service 150 determines whetherthere is an existing tunnel already established for the hostname. Thetunnel control service 150 may access a data structure that storesinformation about existing tunnels when determining whether there is anexisting tunnel established for the hostname. If there is not anexisting tunnel established for the hostname, flow moves to operation250. If there is an existing tunnel established for the hostname, thenflow moves to operation 265 where the tunnel control service 150 causesa load balancer to be created to load balance between the multipletunnels. The load balancer may create different virtual origin names forthe tunneled hostname and load balance between them. The load balancermay monitor the origin servers and/or the tunnels to determine theirstatus (e.g., if they are healthy or unhealthy). The load balancer mayuse one or more load balancing techniques, such as evenly distributingthe load across the multiple tunnels or a group of specified tunnels (apool of tunnels), distributing the load across the multiple tunnelsusing round-robin selection, distributing the load by selecting thetunnel connected to the origin server with the lowest CPU load and/ornetwork load, distributing the load across the multiple tunnelsaccording to the number of concurrent requests, and/or distributing theload across the multiple tunnels based on average request latency overan arbitrary time period (sending the traffic to the lowest averagerequest latency).

The load balancing may also include geographical routing where thetunneled hostname owner can configure specific traffic policies andfailover ordering by geographic region. For instance, all traffic fromNorth America can be directed to a pool of virtual origin serverslocated in North America and failover to a pool of virtual originservers in Europe, and vice versa.

In an embodiment, the load balancing may use data collected from thetunnel clients on different origin servers for the hostname asadditional metrics for load balancing. For example, the tunnel clientmay include an agent that can collect statistics of the origin serverand/or the tunnel such as CPU consumption, bytes in, bytes out, numberof clients connected, status codes, response time, and/or errors. By wayof example, the load balancing may load balance between differenttunnels to different origin servers for underutilized origin serversand/or overutilized origin servers according to the collected statistics(e.g., move traffic from a burdened server to a less burdened server).Flow moves from operation 265 to operation 250.

At operation 250, the tunnel control service 150 generates a responsemessage indicating the errors, the hostname that has been configured forthe tunnel, and the origin CA certificate to present when serving thehostname, and transmits the response message to the tunnel service 145.The tunnel service 145 may then transmit the response to the tunnelclient 140. The tunnel service 145 is configured with an internalmapping that maps the tunneled hostname to the established tunnel withthe tunnel client 140. The tunnel client 140 is configured with the URLof the origin web server that the tunnel will forward traffic to, whichis usually the localhost of the origin server 130.

After establishing a tunnel, traffic for the application or servicesrunning on the origin server for the tunneled hostname may betransmitted over the tunnel. FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustratesexemplary operations for using a tunnel established in a distributededge compute and routing service according to an embodiment. Theoperations of FIG. 3 will be described with respect to the exemplaryembodiment of FIG. 1 . However, the operations of FIG. 3 can beperformed by different embodiments than those of FIG. 1 , and FIG. 1 canperform operations different than those of FIG. 3 . The operations ofFIG. 3 will be described with respect to HTTP and/or HTTPS. However, thetunnel may be used for other protocol types including protocolsimplemented atop TCP and UDP, or any other protocol type.

At operation 310, an edge server of the distributed edge compute androuting service receives a request from a client network application ofa client computing device for an action to be performed on a resourcehandled by the tunneled hostname origin server 130. The request may bean HTTP or HTTPS request. The request may be received at the edge serverbecause of a DNS request for the hostname returning an IP addressassigned to the tunneled hostname (as described previously) instead ofthe IP address of the hostname on the origin server 130. The edge servermay determine whether the name included in the SNI matches the name ofthe HTTP request's host header, and block the request if there is amismatch (if the request is blocked, then the further operations of FIG.3 are not performed).

Next, at operation 315, the edge server determines if it is a tunnelingedge server for the tunneled hostname. For example, the edge server thatreceives the request determines whether it has a tunnel to the originserver 130 for the hostname. As shown in FIG. 1 , the edge server 160Ais not a tunneling edge server for the hostname, and the edge server160B is a tunneling edge server for the hostname because of the tunnel180 between the tunnel service 145 and the tunnel client 140. Aspreviously described, the distributed edge compute and routing serviceincludes multiple edge servers that are typically geographicallydistributed that may each receive HTTP requests from client computingdevices, which may depend on the geographic location of the clientcomputing devices. Some of these edge servers may have a tunnel for thehostname and some may not. If the edge server that receives the requestis a tunneling edge server for the tunneled hostname (it has a tunnelconnected to the origin server for the hostname), then flow moves tooperation 325. If the edge server that receives the request is not atunneling edge server for the tunneled hostname, then flow moves tooperation 320.

At operation 320, the edge server routes the HTTP request toward theedge server that is connected with a tunnel from the origin server forthe hostname. With respect to FIG. 1 , the edge server 160A forwards theHTTP request toward the edge server 160B. Although not illustrated inFIG. 1 , the request could be routed inside different devices and/orvirtual machines in the PoP. Flow then moves back to operation 310.Although not illustrated in FIG. 1 for simplicity, there may be manyedge servers (along with other network equipment) between the edgeserver that initially receives the request and a tunneling edge server.For instance, if an origin server is in London and a tunnel is createdfrom an edge server in London to the origin server, and a request isbeing sent from a client computing device in California that is receivedat an edge server in California, the request may be routed over multipleedge servers between California and London.

In conjunction with establishing a tunnel, routing rules are installedin the edge servers of the distributed edge compute and routing serviceto reach the first one of the plurality of edge servers for the tunneledhostname. In an embodiment, the routing between edge server(s) and atunneling edge server is performed intelligently based on trafficinformation (e.g., latency, packet loss data) gathered from otherrequests that traverse the distributed edge compute and routing service.This allows the distributed edge compute and routing service to pick thebest path to the origin (e.g., the fastest, most reliable, etc.)depending on current network conditions.

In an embodiment, the routing between edge server(s) and a tunnelingedge server is based on carrier information. For example, some of the IPaddress(es) assigned to the tunnel may be from different carriers thatmay have different routes that can be taken through the distributed edgecompute and routing service. The routing may find the optimal path tothe origin based on which carrier is selected for the routing, which maybe based on factors such as speed, reliability, and/or cost. Forinstance, the prices of different cloud providers can be monitored (theprices can change relatively quickly depending on demand and sales) andthe cheaper route can be taken.

Before determining to transmit the request to another edge server or tothe origin server, in an embodiment, the receiving edge serverdetermines whether the requested resource is available in cache. If therequested resource is available in cache, then the receiving edge servermay respond to the requesting client device with the requested resourcewithout querying the origin server or another edge server. If therequested resource is not available in cache, in an embodiment thereceiving edge server determines if the requested resource is availablein cache in a different edge server. If it is, that different edgeserver can respond with the requested resource to the receiving edgeserver which can then respond to the requesting client device with therequested resource, and cache the requested resource for responding tofuture requests. If the network resource is not available in cache onany edge server, then the operations 315-325 may be performed.

At operation 325 (the edge server is a tunneling edge server), the edgeserver transmits the HTTP request over the tunnel. For instance, thetunnel service 145 may convert requests (e.g., HTTP or HTTPS requests)to HTTP/2 requests within the tunnel as identified by the hostnamethrough SNI. Although not illustrated in FIG. 1 for simplicity, thetunnel supports multiple data connections and control connections.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates exemplary operations for usinga tunnel established in a distributed edge compute and routing serviceaccording to an embodiment. The operations of FIG. 4 will be describedwith respect to the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1 . However, theoperations of FIG. 4 can be performed by different embodiments thanthose of FIG. 1 , and FIG. 1 can perform operations different than thoseof FIG. 4 . The operations of FIG. 4 will be described with respect toHTTP and/or HTTPS. However, the tunnel may be used for other protocoltypes including protocols implemented atop TCP and UDP, or any otherprotocol type.

At operation 410, a tunneling edge server receives a response over thetunnel (e.g., an HTTP response). For instance, the tunnel service 145receives a response from the tunneled hostname over the tunnel 180.Next, at operation 415, the tunneling edge server transmits the HTTPresponse toward the intended recipient (e.g., the correspondingrequesting client computing device). The response may be routed back theopposite way the request was routed to the tunneling edge server. Anyedge servers along the path may cache the resource as the resourcetravels through.

Embodiments described herein allows a website owner to server contentsuch as applications or services through a secure tunnel to an edgeserver in the distributed edge compute and routing service. Traffic tothe content is only able to find and access the origin server throughthe distributed edge compute and routing service. Thus, traffic is notreceived at the origin for the content directly because the origin isnot exposed to the general internet. This protects the content and theorigin server. Because the distributed edge compute and routing servicemay be configured to drop unwanted traffic at the edge server (e.g.,according to the policies set by the tunneled hostname owner), onlytraffic that has been validated by the distributed edge compute androuting service is received at the origin sever.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary computer device 600 that can be used insome embodiments. The computer device 600, which is a form of a dataprocessing system, includes the bus(es) 650 which is coupled with theprocessing system 620, power supply 625, memory 630, and the nonvolatilememory 640 (e.g., a hard drive, flash memory, Phase-Change Memory (PCM),etc.). The bus(es) 650 may be connected to each other through variousbridges, controllers, and/or adapters as is well known in the art. Theprocessing system 620 may retrieve instruction(s) from the memory 630and/or the nonvolatile memory 640, and execute the instructions toperform operations described herein. The bus 650 interconnects the abovecomponents together and also interconnects those components to thedisplay controller & display device 670, Input/Output devices 680 (e.g.,NIC (Network Interface Card), a cursor control (e.g., mouse,touchscreen, touchpad, etc.), a keyboard, etc.), and the optionalwireless transceiver(s) 690 (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, Infrared, etc.). Oneor more of the components illustrated in FIG. 6 may be optional in someimplementations. In one embodiment, the client device, edge server, DNSserver, control server, and/or the origin server described herein maytake the form of the computer device 600.

The techniques shown in the figures can be implemented using code anddata stored and executed on one or more computing devices (e.g., clientdevice, edge server, DNS server, control server, origin server, etc.).Such computing devices store and communicate (internally and/or withother computing devices over a network) code and data usingmachine-readable media, such as non-transitory machine-readable storagemedia (e.g., magnetic disks; optical disks; random access memory; readonly memory; flash memory devices; phase-change memory) andmachine-readable communication media (e.g., electrical, optical,acoustical or other form of propagated signals—such as carrier waves,infrared signals, digital signals, etc.). In addition, such computingdevices typically include a set of one or more processors coupled to oneor more other components, such as one or more storage devices, userinput/output devices (e.g., a keyboard, a touchscreen, and/or adisplay), and network connections. The coupling of the set of processorsand other components is typically through one or more busses and bridges(also termed as bus controllers). The storage device and signalscarrying the network traffic respectively represent one or moremachine-readable storage media and machine-readable communication media.Thus, the storage device of a given computing device typically storescode and/or data for execution on the set of one or more processors ofthat computing device. Of course, one or more parts of an embodiment ofthe invention may be implemented using different combinations ofsoftware, firmware, and/or hardware.

In the preceding description, numerous specific details are set forth.However, it is understood that embodiments may be practiced withoutthese specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits,structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not toobscure the understanding of this description. Those of ordinary skillin the art, with the included descriptions, will be able to implementappropriate functionality without undue experimentation.

References in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,”“an example embodiment,” etc., indicate that the embodiment describedmay include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, butevery embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature,structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarilyreferring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature,structure, or characteristic is described in connection with anembodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of oneskilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristicin connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitlydescribed.

While the flow diagrams in the figures show a particular order ofoperations performed by certain embodiments of the invention, it shouldbe understood that such order is exemplary (e.g., alternativeembodiments may perform the operations in a different order, combinecertain operations, overlap certain operations, etc.).

While the invention has been described in terms of several embodiments,those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is notlimited to the embodiments described, can be practiced with modificationand alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Thedescription is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for establishing and using a tunnel in adistributed edge compute and routing service, the method comprising:receiving, at a first one of a plurality of edge servers of thedistributed edge compute and routing service from a first tunnel clientresiding on a first origin server, a first tunnel connection requestthat requests a first tunnel be established between the first one of theplurality of edge servers and the first tunnel client, wherein the firsttunnel connection request identifies a hostname that is to be tunneled;assigning a first IP address for the first tunnel; causing a Domain NameSystem (DNS) record to be added or changed that associates the hostnamewith the assigned first IP address for the first tunnel; installingrouting rules in the plurality of edge servers to reach the first one ofthe plurality of edge servers for the tunneled hostname; receiving, atthe first one of the plurality of edge servers, a request for an actionto be performed on a resource of the tunneled hostname handled by thefirst origin server, wherein the first one of the plurality of edgeservers receives the request from a second one of the plurality of edgeservers that received the request from a client network application, andwherein the second one of the plurality of edge servers is not connectedto the first origin server for the tunneled hostname; and transmittingthe request from the first one of the plurality of edge servers to thefirst origin server over the first tunnel.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein prior to transmitting the request over the first tunnel,converting the request to an HTTP/2 request.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the first one of the plurality of edge servers is selected toreceive the first tunnel connection request based on the first one ofthe plurality of edge servers being closest to the first origin serveras determined by an implementation of an anycast protocol.
 4. The methodof claim 1, wherein the first tunnel connection request includesauthentication information, and authorizing the first tunnel connectionrequest using the authentication information prior to assigning thefirst IP address for the first tunnel.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: acquiring a certificate for the hostname to secure aninternal connection between a web server running on the first one of theplurality of edge servers and a tunnel service on the first one of theplurality of edge servers that services the first tunnel.
 6. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at a third one of theplurality of edge servers from a second tunnel client residing on asecond origin server, a second tunnel connection request that requests asecond tunnel be established between the third one of the plurality ofedge servers and the second tunnel client, wherein the second tunnelconnection request identifies the hostname that is to be tunneled;determining that the first tunnel for the hostname exists that connectsthe first one of the plurality of edge servers to the first originserver; assigning a second IP address for the second tunnel; causing aDomain Name System (DNS) record to be added or changed that associatesthe hostname with the assigned second IP address for the second tunnel;and creating a load balancer to balance traffic across the first tunneland the second tunnel.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:receiving, from the first tunnel client and the second tunnel client,statistics of the first origin server and the second origin serverrespectively, wherein the load balancer balances traffic across thefirst tunnel and the second tunnel using the statistics received fromthe first tunnel client and the second tunnel client.
 8. Anon-transitory machine-readable storage medium that providesinstructions that, when executed by a processor, cause said processor toperform operations comprising: receiving, at a first one of a pluralityof edge servers of a distributed edge compute and routing service from afirst tunnel client residing on a first origin server, a first tunnelconnection request that requests a first tunnel be established betweenthe first one of the plurality of edge servers and the first tunnelclient, wherein the first tunnel connection request identifies ahostname that is to be tunneled; assigning a first IP address for thefirst tunnel; causing a Domain Name System (DNS) record to be added orchanged that associates the hostname with the assigned first IP addressfor the first tunnel; causing routing rules to be installed in theplurality of edge servers to reach the first one of the plurality ofedge servers for the tunneled hostname; receiving, at the first one ofthe plurality of edge servers, a request for an action to be performedon a resource of the tunneled hostname handled by the first originserver, wherein the first one of the plurality of edge servers receivesthe request from a second one of the plurality of edge servers thatreceived the request from a client network application, and wherein thesecond one of the plurality of edge servers is not connected to thefirst origin server for the tunneled hostname; and transmitting therequest from the first one of the plurality of edge servers to the firstorigin server over the first tunnel.
 9. The non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein prior totransmitting the request over the first tunnel, converting the requestto an HTTP/2 request.
 10. The non-transitory machine-readable storagemedium of claim 8, wherein the first one of the plurality of edgeservers is selected to receive the first tunnel connection request basedon the first one of the plurality of edge servers being closest to thefirst origin server as determined by an implementation of an anycastprotocol.
 11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium ofclaim 8, wherein the first tunnel connection request includesauthentication information, and authorizing the first tunnel connectionrequest using the authentication information prior to assigning thefirst IP address for the first tunnel.
 12. The non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium of claim 8 that further providesinstructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said processorto further perform operations comprising: acquiring a certificate forthe hostname to secure an internal connection between a web serverrunning on the first one of the plurality of edge servers and a tunnelservice on the first one of the plurality of edge servers that servicesthe first tunnel.
 13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage mediumof claim 8 that further provides instructions that, when executed by theprocessor, cause said processor to further perform operationscomprising: receiving, at a third one of the plurality of edge serversfrom a second tunnel client residing on a second origin server, a secondtunnel connection request that requests a second tunnel be establishedbetween the third one of the plurality of edge servers and the secondtunnel client, wherein the second tunnel connection request identifiesthe hostname that is to be tunneled; determining that the first tunnelfor the hostname exists that connects the first one of the plurality ofedge servers to the first origin server; assigning a second IP addressfor the second tunnel; causing a Domain Name System (DNS) record to beadded or changed that associates the hostname with the assigned secondIP address for the second tunnel; and creating a load balancer tobalance traffic across the first tunnel and the second tunnel.
 14. Thenon-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13 that furtherprovides instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause saidprocessor to further perform operations comprising: receiving, from thefirst tunnel client and the second tunnel client, statistics of thefirst origin server and the second origin server respectively, whereinthe load balancer balances traffic across the first tunnel and thesecond tunnel using the statistics received from the first tunnel clientand the second tunnel client.
 15. An apparatus, comprising: a set of oneor more processors; a non-transitory machine-readable storage mediumthat stores instructions that, when executed by the set of processors,is to perform operations including: receive, at a first one of aplurality of edge servers of a distributed edge compute and routingservice from a first tunnel client residing on a first origin server, afirst tunnel connection request that requests a first tunnel beestablished between the first one of the plurality of edge servers andthe first tunnel client, wherein the first tunnel connection request isto identify a hostname that is to be tunneled; assign a first IP addressfor the first tunnel; cause a Domain Name System (DNS) record to beadded or changed that associates the hostname with the assigned first IPaddress for the first tunnel; cause routing rules to be installed in theplurality of edge servers to reach the first one of the plurality ofedge servers for the tunneled hostname; receive, at the first one of theplurality of edge servers, a request for an action to be performed on aresource of the tunneled hostname handled by the first origin server,wherein the first one of the plurality of edge servers is to receive therequest from a second one of the plurality of edge servers that receivedthe request from a client network application, and wherein the secondone of the plurality of edge servers is not to be connected to the firstorigin server for the tunneled hostname; and transmit the request fromthe first one of the plurality of edge servers to the first originserver over the first tunnel.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein thenon-transitory machine-readable storage medium further storesinstructions that, when executed by the set of processors, cause the setof processors to further to convert the request to an HTTP/2 requestprior to transmission of the request over the first tunnel.
 17. Theapparatus of claim 15, wherein the first one of the plurality of edgeservers is to be selected to receive the first tunnel connection requestbased on the first one of the plurality of edge servers being closest tothe first origin server as determined by an implementation of an anycastprotocol.
 18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first tunnelconnection request is to include authentication information, andauthorizing the first tunnel connection request using the authenticationinformation prior to assigning the first IP address for the firsttunnel.
 19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium further stores instructions that, whenexecuted by the set of processors, cause the set of processors to:acquire a certificate for the hostname to secure an internal connectionbetween a web server running on the first one of the plurality of edgeservers and a tunnel service on the first one of the plurality of edgeservers that services the first tunnel.
 20. The apparatus of claim 15,wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium furtherstores instructions that, when executed by the set of processors, causethe set of processors to: receive, at a third one of the plurality ofedge servers from a second tunnel client residing on a second originserver, a second tunnel connection request that requests a second tunnelbe established between the third one of the plurality of edge serversand the second tunnel client, wherein the second tunnel connectionrequest is to identify the hostname that is to be tunneled; determinethat the first tunnel for the hostname exists that connects the firstone of the plurality of edge servers to the first origin server; assigna second IP address for the second tunnel; cause a Domain Name System(DNS) record to be added or changed that associates the hostname withthe assigned second IP address for the second tunnel; and create loadbalancer to balance traffic across the first tunnel and the secondtunnel.